It’s wine grape season! And what does that mean?
Of course, it means that we have robots to do the manual labor of picking grapes, pruning, and recording data! And that’s exactly what Wall-Ye does.
Specifically built for work in the vineyards, Wall-Ye uses two robotic arms and six cameras to pick over 600 vines per day. In addition to the general labor of pruning and de-suckering (removing unproductive shoots, a task often loathed), Wall-Ye also takes data on soil quality, fruit health, and more. It memorizes each single vine and uses artificial intelligence to navigate around.
But even beyond its more functional abilities, Wall-Ye is honest. With its on-board GPS, it detects when it has strayed outside of its vineyard, and won’t start. If it is picked off the ground, the “hard drive self-destructs and the robot sends a message to the winegrower: ‘Help!'” If that isn’t a secure investment, I don’t know what is. Although you might end up with one fried robot.
Although Wall-Ye costs a pretty penny, it solves a pretty big problem. Previously, workers were scarce during picking season, around August. However, having a robot solves this problem. Unlike humans, Wall-Ye feels no fatigue, takes no breaks, never gets sick, what could be better?
If only it would cost just a little less…
The video below doesn’t show in an embedded version, so please watch it on Youtube.
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